Learning barriers: a framework for the examination of structural impediments to organizational change

The body of knowledge on organizational learning is believed to be large and fragmented. Therefore, this knowledge seems to be of limited use to practitioners. We, however, present an alternative review of the most important publications on organizational learning that deals explicitly with learning barriers. The structural causes of problems with organizational learning are related to malfunctioning components of the cybernetic learning system of the organization. Thus, it became clear that the body of knowledge on organizational learning is less fragmented and does not contain any contradictions. This resulted in our construction of a framework in which the major contributions on organizational learning are integrated. It allows practitioners to use strengths of multiple theories to analyze change management problems. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.